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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting
QCOM 159.42-1.2%Jan 16 9:30 AM EST

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To: gdichaz who wrote (3714)10/15/2000 11:04:07 AM
From: Getch  Read Replies (1) of 197254
 
Korean carriers pursuit of W-CDMA

We have spend a lot of time trying to figure out why the Korean carriers are appearing to want W-CDMA for the additional spectrum. One reason could be the carrier profitability of I-mode (for DoCoMo, it has worked). Could this be another.

A huge premium was paid for Voicestream in the U.S., the reason was explained as roaming capabilty with the rest of the GSM world. The actual amounts of roaming income generation are unknown, at least by me, but they must be large to justify the premium paid for Voicestream. The Korean carriers must know this also. Korea at this time is all CDMA, and unable to roam beyond other CDMA countries. If the premium paid for Voicestream would also extend to a Korean carrier that installed W-CDMA and could now generate this additional roaming income (and expanded market cap) it would be appealing.

I personally feel the reason the decision was delayed was to gain a better understanding of the direction of the Chinese market. I am not an expert in Asia by any means, but I would guess that roaming between Korea and China is big, and getting larger, (more so than Korea-Europe) and that if China does not implement CDMA on a large scale, and does migrate eventually from its large GSM base to W-CDMA, this would be a very large roaming market for a Korean W-CDMA carrier. This, IMO, adds additional weight to the Chinese decision. But even if China Unicom does install CDMA, the large majority (Unicom will start something like 50 - 60 million users behind GSM China Telecom) of Chinese wireless is still going to be on the GSM migration route.
My guess is at least one of the three carriers in Korea will install W-CDMA, with the expectation that the additional income generation (and market cap) from roaming will justify the additional installation expense.

Fire holes at will...
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